Berger: Serbs fired artillery into Albania

March 25, 1999
Web posted at: 3:29 p.m. EST (2029 GMT)

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Clinton warned Thursday that
airstrikes will continue if Slobodan Milosevic does not
"choose peace," and Secretary of State Madeleine Albright
said the Yugoslav president "knows how to get in touch with
us."

Albright said diplomatic channels "remain open" if Milosevic
wants to end the attacks. But, she added, "There is no
indication that there is any change at all in Milosevic's
position."

"It is impossible for us to negotiate while he builds up his
forces, attacks civilians and torches villages in Kosovo,"
Albright said at a news conference at the State Department.

White House National Security Adviser Samuel Berger said that
as Serb forces continue their offensive, they have fired
artillery shells in neighboring Albania. "It's obviously very
disturbing to us," he told reporters at the White House.

Both Albright and Berger spoke after they and other senior
Clinton administration international policy advisers briefed
the president at the White House.

The airstrikes, involving bombs and air- and sea-launched
cruise missiles, were authorized by NATO after Milosevic
refused to call off attacks against ethnic Albanians in
Kosovo or sign a U.S.-brokered peace deal.

NATO officials in Brussels said allied aircraft "destroyed"
three Yugoslav jet fighters and hit 40 targets on the ground
throughout Yugoslavia in Wednesday's first wave of bombings,
missile firings and air combat.

"I'm very grateful that our crews returned safely after their
work last night," Clinton said at the White House just before
the briefing.

The president said he believed that NATO ground troops would
not be needed to protect the Kosovar Albanians.

"We believe that airstrikes will be sufficient to meet the
military objectives," White House spokesman Joe Lockhart
said.

Berger says Serb forces have fired on Albania

Clinton said the goal of the United States and its NATO
allies "is to prevent a humanitarian catastrophe or a wider
war."

"Our objective is to make it clear that Serbia must choose
peace or we will limit its ability to make war."

Albright acknowledged that the United States and Russia are
in sharp disagreement on the need for force. But, she said,
the Clinton administration hopes to convince Moscow "that our
differences over Kosovo need not disrupt progress on other
fronts."